Radiohead's Thom Yorke Reveals Side Project Name, Tour Dates

26 Feb 2010 13:40:00 EST

Atoms for Peace feature members of Red Hot Chili Peppers and R.E.M.
By Josh Wigler

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has finally unveiled the name of his new side project: Atoms for Peace. The band's all-star lineup consists of bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, drummer Joey Waronker of R.E.M., Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.

"It has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms for Peace," Yorke wrote on the official Radiohead Web site. "Hope you like the name. It seemed bleedin' obvious."

Atoms for Peace will embark on a brief tour in April, beginning with two nights at New York's Roseland Ballroom on April 5 and 6 and concluding with a performance at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California, on April 18. Tickets for Coachella are currently available for purchase, while tickets for the other dates go on sale next week.

In October Yorke assembled the members of Atoms for Peace for a two-night concert event at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, with the intention of performing tracks from his debut solo album, The Eraser, released in 2006.

"Yorke is aggressively reaching for the bottom in his own sound," The Los Angeles Times wrote of that concert. "It wouldn't be fair to call this music Radiohead Lite, because it wasn't light at all. But it was more concentrated and, in some ways, more graspable than that group's work. By appealing to the lower body, Yorke and his band dictated the audience's focus in ways that Radiohead's performances don't."

"We had too much fun to just leave it there," Yorke said of the upcoming tour.

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